Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
The results would be there after breakfast with my pack.
TWO
Kane
The board splintered and snapped in half beneath my bloody knuckles, but I didn’t hesitate. “Another!” I barked at my top enforcer and second-in-command, Gael.
He pulled a fresh board from the stack without comment and braced himself for the next hit. I reared back and snapped my fist through it. Just like the dozen before it, it was hollow comfort for my raging anger.
My damn, meddlesome, didn’t-know-when-to-quit father… I fell back with a snarl before Gael could pull another board from the stack, and planted my hands on my hips so I could pace. I couldn’t sit still, or I was going to start punching holes in the side of my barn, and I’d just built the damn thing. I couldn’t afford repairs right now.
Not with a quarter of the wolf population of the world descending on us within two weeks.
“Why does he think this is a good idea? One giant mating mart isn’t going to result in anything but bloodshed. That many unmated males in one place, with all those pheromones… It’s going to be chaotic, and people are going to get hurt. Why would he do this?” I was mostly talking to myself, but Reed answered nonetheless, from his position leaning casually against one of the barn’s support beams.
“Perhaps because you’re in your thirties, and he’s tired of waiting for you to woo and bite a woman on your own, hmm?”
I growled at him in response. My wolf pressed to the forefront, searching for the danger causing my rage. When all he found was our most trusted pack mates in an otherwise empty barn, he curled up with an annoyed huff.
You too, buddy. I’m not ready to be mated yet, and you’re going to have to deal.
He didn’t deign that worthy of a response, dropping off into sleep. Though he did flick his tail at me as if flipping me the bird before closing his eyes.
She-wolf-hungry bastard.
My wolf had been delighted when I’d gotten the call from my father that morning declaring my pack grounds the site of the first all-pack gathering in centuries. The idea of all those eligible she-wolves had sent him howling and yipping with glee. Me, on the other hand, not so much.
“Regardless of why”-Gael gave Reed a pointed not
-helping look-“we’ve got a lot of work to get done, and he said to start expecting people in as little as one week. Where are we going to put everyone? We’ve got some rooms in the lodge, sure, but only one bunkhouse has been completed. If we put the entire pack on it, we could advance the schedule, and have the second one done for sure, and the third dried in, if nothing else…”
I groaned, still too mad to focus on the details, even though the final decision had to be mine. That was the deal with being Alpha; you got all the power, you got all the responsibility. It wasn’t nearly as fun as it was cracked up to be. Forcing myself to calm, I closed my eyes for a moment and drew in a few deep breaths through my nose. The familiar scents of sawdust, earth, and spruce flooded my senses, bringing me a few inches back from the ledge. The overbearing, domineering, meddling-
Stop, Kane. Focus.
I shook my head to clear it and gave him a decision. “We pull everyone except Marise and Neo, because we need them free to do food preparation as well. Gracelyn is obviously unavailable, given the pregnancy. Everyone else can pitch in. Accelerate the second bunkhouse, make every room a double, and if the third bunkhouse isn’t done, that can be where the guys bunk, and the early arrivals can pitch in before the festivities start. We can also put people up in here, if needed. It wouldn’t be the first time any of us have slept wild.”
“Sounds like a plan, Alpha.” Gael ducked his head in acknowledgment and excused himself from the barn.
That only left me and Reed, my third.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” I said, already back to pacing. I ran my fingers through my messy hair for what felt like the tenth time in ten minutes.
“It’s not going to be so bad. The other Alphas will know who their hotheads are, and we’ll do our best to keep everyone busy. Gracelyn is enjoying her bed-rest duties of activity planner. That was smart, by the way-give her something to do up front so she feels important, even if she can’t be up and about.”
Gracelyn was our only pregnant she-wolf, and Reed’s cousin. Sweet as a lamb, until you ticked her off. Then she knew how to use her fangs.
“Yes, well, I can’t have her hurting herself, can I? Adam would try to take my head off.”
He chuckled, the sound darkly amused. “He is even more overprotective now.”
I sighed and finally stopped pacing. “I don’t blame the man. We lose more of our women to birthing than any war or disease has ever taken. It’s no wonder our numbers dwindle when the pregnancies are so hard. If I were in his shoes, I’d be a wreck on four paws.”
“When.”
“What?”
“When you’re in his shoes. You’re not getting out of this gathering unmated. The sooner you accept that, the better. Your old man is on a mission to see you mated and paternal, stat. You know the ruling line has to be secure, and he is not going to leave you be until it is.”
I growled again, annoyed by his logic. Thinking of myself in Adam’s shoes left me sick to my stomach. Sure, I was Alpha and responsible for the well-being of my pack, and I loved them all. But a pregnant mate was a whole different level of worry. I had control in some situations, but in most, my pack mates were free to live their lives and make their own decisions.
Putting the woman I loved in danger by the sheer fact of being with her, the natural progression from marriage into parenthood, to starting our own little pack… it horrified me. The thought of mating with a woman, impregnating her, and losing her and the baby in one fell swoop… It was a good thing the mate bond would kill me alongside them, because I’d go feral otherwise. The thought left me paralyzed with fear.
No, I wasn’t ready. And no amount of meddling from my father would make me ready a minute sooner. My wolf let out an annoyed huff at my line of thinking and began pacing. He didn’t agree, but he’d have to learn to deal right along with my father.
THREE
Brielle
Twelve days later
The plane ride to Alaska was mostly uneventful. Shay and I read books, while Leigh downed all the tiny bottles of alcohol the flight attendant would give her. Drinking for a wolf was kind of pointless since our fast metabolisms burned off the alcohol so quickly, we rarely felt any effects. Most of us didn’t bother. If my pack mates wanted a buzz, they’d get furry and go racing through the forest. It wasn’t really an option for me, but I was comfortable with my quiet, studious life.
Today, however, was an exception. Leigh was afraid of flying, so she’d shelled out all her pennies to stay slightly buzzed the whole flight. When we landed in Anchorage, we then boarded a rental van and started the ten-hour drive north to the Blackwater pack’s territory. Leigh was so happy to be back on solid ground, she wouldn’t stop singing until she passed out three hours later.
That left Shay and me with eight of our pack’s males and no buffer. You see, Leigh might have been loud and rambunctious, but she was the perfect bestie for our otherwise quiet trio. She kept everybody looking left, so they never worried about what Shay and I were doing on the right. Perfection.
But now she was snoring softly, blonde head propped against the van’s window and a small drool spot forming against the glass. It was tangible, the feeling of too many eyes on my skin as I pretended to read my paranormal romance. Had I read the same paragraph three times in a row? Yes. Did I know what it said yet? No. Was that going to stop me from going for the fourth read? Not in the slightest.
I still wasn’t eager to engage. The Alpha and his first two wolves rode in the front, and they were all quiet. But the other five males were grumbling among themselves, a fact I was doing my dead-level best to ignore.